Current AffairsCzech National Museum exhibits three of the country's most renowned archaeological objects

Three of the most valued archaeological objects ever found on Czech
territory have gone on exhibit in Prague‘s National Museum. Among them
is
the oldest ceramic object in the world, the roughly 30, 000-year-old Venus
of Dolní Věstonice. They are part of a country-wide exhibition
commemorating the 200th anniversary of the founding of the first Czech
museum.

Venus of Dolní Věstonice, photo: Kristýna Maková
On Monday afternoon trucks escorted by heavily armed police stopped in
front of the National Museum building in central Prague and unloaded three
of the greatest ancient archaeological treasures the Czech Republic has to
offer.

First, the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, then a rarely preserved head of a
stone statue of an ancient Celtic warrior, known to the Czechs simply as
“Celtic head”, and a group of 18,000-year-old meteorites found at a
Palaeolithic settlement in Silesia. After a brief opening ceremony the
exhibit was opened to the public the next day. Michal Stehlík, the
National Museum’s deputy director in charge of exhibitions, explains.

“These three objects are from the three major museums in the Czech
republic: Opava, Brno and Prague’s National Museum. It is a celebration
of the 200 years since the first museum was founded in the Czech Republic
which wasn‘t the National Museum but the regional museum in Opava. In
2017, celebrations will be held in Brno [whose museum was founded 1817]
and
finally, in 2018 it will be here in Prague [founded in 1818].

“It will be a unique chance to see these three exhibits together.
Although the Celtic head was featured in our previous exhibitions, having
all three of these objects in one place together is a one in a hundred
years chance, I think.”

Celtic head, photo: Kristýna Maková
The exhibition also puts the country in a European historical context, as
a territory in the centre of the continent where many different peoples
lived and crossed throughout the ages, whether the Cro-Magnons, who are
thought to be the makers of the Venus statue, or the Celts who gave
Bohemia
its name.

The exhibition has been drawing visitors from the Czech Republic and
abroad. I asked some of them why they came to see the artefacts. This man
came from Austria:

“My wife told me about it and I looked it up on the internet and
saw
this was an interesting woman [Venus statue]. So we hope to see her and
make her acquaintance.”

Another woman was visiting from Spain:

Was that the Particular reason why you went to the museum?

“Yes“

And which one of those exhibits did you like the most?

“I think the Venus because it was the oldest.”

In view of the 200-year anniversary I asked Mr Stehlík how successful
museums have been in the Czech Republic, given the fact that in the past,
they often served communist ideology.

18,000-year-old meteorites, photo: Kristýna Maková“I think these past years have been better for visitors, for
society and
for the museums as well. I think that we don‘t have such a strong
tradition of connection between museums, culture and society like in
Germany and Britain.

“We have a little problem there. We must create more activities and
communicate with our society because the support from the Czech state and
the region is not as good as in western Europe.”